I have to say it's been a pleasure joining this forum. Very nice welcomes from people and always great to learn things from so many knowledgeable fans. I thought I'd venture a first topic kick off.

When I was quite young listening to Norwegian Wood I always heard the "this bird had flown" line as having a poetic nuance. I thought John was using a gracious metaphor for a free and wild creature who couldn't be tied down by someone. Certainly not anyone crass enough to sleep in her bath.

Of course as I got older I had the epiphany one day that john was not being graciously poetic. "Bird" actually was the rather brusque slang for a girl. That completely changed my view of the song. "Wow" I thought. "That's even cooler."

I'd wager John wasn't using this latter meaning on Free as a Bird though.

Interesting to hear from others about examples of what they thought a song's lyrics meant when they were younger to when they became older and wiser.

I had a similar revelation on NW when I realized what a bird was! It made a little more sense. Then last year I found out he torched her place thanks to this forum. Lol! Some song!

Yes. I think it's safe to say as a young lad I simply didn't know what the song was about. I recall I thought he'd used a chair to make a fire in the fireplace. I like this other interpretation better though. Now that's rock and roll.

But John does sing "So I lit a fire" in the Take 1 version on Anthology II...

However, it never changed the meaning for me.

Ah you're right about the Rubber a Soul version. Wonder if the difference between that and Take 1 is John meant the torching at first then moderated it for final consumption. Oh well. So much for a bit of punk-style house burning.

There's a fascinating revelation in tune In which I'd never heard of and I think Mark Lewisohn was the one who 'discovered' it:

In 1962, one of the Cavern regs holidayed in Norway and brought John back a little wooden doll or toy. George asked him about it and John said it was Norwegian Wood. The fan recalled this 3 years later when the song came out

I always relate this song to any girl who seems to leave opened the door, but then you see it was no more than an illusion. The lines "I once had a girl, or should I say she once had me" and "She asked me to stay and she told me to sit anywhere; so I looked around and I noticed there wasn't a chair" are pure genius, and the major base of my interpretation.

I don't know how I forgot this changed interpretation...it's a very recent one. I've always thought that "For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool" in "Hey Jude" sounded awkward. I was interpreting it like "Well, you know...", not like Paul stating a well-known fact. Does that make sense? Then one day a light bulb finally turned on over my head!

I don't know how I forgot this changed interpretation...it's a very recent one. I've always thought that "For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool" in "Hey Jude" sounded awkward. I was interpreting it like "Well, you know...", not like Paul stating a well-known fact. Does that make sense? Then one day a light bulb finally turned on over my head!

Banana-na-na-nanananah! Tell me what that means?!

Logged

Sometimes I wonder if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or imbeciles who really mean it! Mark Twain

When I was quite young listening to Norwegian Wood I always heard the "this bird had flown" line as having a poetic nuance. I thought John was using a gracious metaphor for a free and wild creature who couldn't be tied down by someone. Certainly not anyone crass enough to sleep in her bath.

Of course as I got older I had the epiphany one day that john was not being graciously poetic. "Bird" actually was the rather brusque slang for a girl. That completely changed my view of the song. "Wow" I thought. "That's even cooler."

I'm coming in on this thread late, but wanted to say that I had the same interpretation of the song, Moogmodule; it wasn't until I was a teenager and learned that bird was a slang British term that I realized I'd gotten most of my interpretation of the song wrong.